12-year-old boy became millionaire after being one of the first to invest in Bitcoin

Getting in on the Bitcoin boom early was certainly fortunate for some investors, most notably a 12-year-old who saw himself become a millionaire.

When it comes to money management, a lot of young people certainly don’t have their act together. Admittedly, the same can be said of some adults as well.

But, at the age of 12, Erik Finman seemed to have his financial future all planned out.

In 2011, Finman made a deal with his parents that he would not pursue a college degree as he wanted to make his fortune outside of traditional education.

Finman decided he wanted to become a millionaire and at his young age decided that investing in cryptocurrency was the way to go for him to realize his dream.

After receiving $1,245 from his grandmother that year, Finman invested into Bitcoin (BTC) - which was then trading at around $12 - and this gave him about 103 BTC.

While I'm sure most kids that age would have likely been lost at how he managed to invest this money on a new emerging online currency phenomenon, it certainly paid off.

TEDx

In December 2017 - when Finman was just 18 - Bitcoin reached a high of around $20,000 and his initial $1,245 investment increased to a staggering $2.07 million.

Not bad, eh?

Reflecting on his decision that paid off massively, as an adult Finman said ‘people didn’t really get what I was trying to do’.

He told the Business of Business: "I really didn't like high school. People didn't really get what I was trying to do, get what I was searching for or what I was dreaming of.

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"I had one teacher tell me, yeah, drop out, work at McDonald’s since I’ll never amount to anything more in life.

"I dropped out of high school and made a bet with my parents: if I make a million dollars by the time I’m 18, I don’t have to go back to school or go to college."

After making his first million, Finman didn’t stop there and built the amount of Bitcoins he had to 341 with an estimated worth of more than $4.8 million by mid 2020.

X/@erikfinman

Though, Finman, now 25, hasn’t been too happy about his claim to fame and insisted he is 'desperate to get out of crypto' and was 'sick of being the Bitcoin person' so he's recently been putting his finances into aircraft which he said has made 'good money'.

Whatever makes you happy champ. More power to you.

Topics: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Money, Technology

Gerrard Kaonga

Gerrard is a Journalist at UNILAD and has dived headfirst into covering everything from breaking global stories to trending entertainment news. He has a bachelors in English Literature from Brunel University and has written across a number of different national and international publications. Most notably the Financial Times, Daily Express, Evening Standard and Newsweek.